The chief investigator of "Deflategate" for the National Football League said his findings were made after "a fair and reasonable examination of the evidence" against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

"If I was sitting on a jury, I was would have checked the box 'proven,'" Ted Wells said Tuesday. "I believe the conclusions are proven based on the preponderance of the evidence."

Wells said that his findings would be enough to convince a jury in a civil trial and offered a strongly worded defense against charges by Brady and the Patriots that his report was slanted and influenced by the NFL.

The NFL wanted me to get to the bottom of the facts, Wells said. The allegation that "people at the league office wanted to put some type of hit on the most popular, iconic player in the league — the real face of the league — it just doesn't make sense," Wells said. "It's a ridiculous allegation."

Brady's agent, Don Yee, has charged that the investigation was slanted against the Patriots and that the four-game suspension ordered by the league is excessive.

"The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis," Yee said in a statement that questioned the NFL's integrity. "In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever. There is no evidence that Tom directed footballs be set at pressures below the allowable limits."

Wells said that Brady came to the interview, answered every question put to him and he was totally cooperative up to a point.

"He refused to permit us to review electronic data from his telephone. Most of the key evidence in cases like these comes from cellphones and he refused," Wells said.

"I do believe that if I had access to Brady's electronic messages that it might have yielded additional insights into what happened. It was disappointing that they would say they were cooperating and then refused to give me access to the electronic evidence."

Wells said no one, including the Patriots and Brady, raised questions about his impartiality when he was named to head the investigation.

"It is wrong to criticize my report because you disagree with the findings," Wells said.

The Patriots, Wells charged, also cooperated up to a point. They refused, he said, to allow a second interview with James McNally, who handled the footballs before the game.

Wells said that not only did the Patriots say they would not provide him, they said he would not tell McNally about the interview request.

"It was just a lack of cooperation."

Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the "punishment far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence,"

Unless the suspension is overturned on appeal, Brady would miss the first four games of the season - including the league's marquee Sept. 10 opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers at which the Super Bowl championship banner would be traditionally raised.

Wells said that no one at the NFL office took the complaint of deflated balls seriously when it was made by the Indianapolis Colts.

"No one paid that much attention to it."

"What drove the decision in this report is one thing: It was the evidence," Wells said. "I could not ethically ignore the import and relevancy of those text messages and the other evidence."